Need any Spare Parts?

You know we can't manage a trip out without a tour of an aviation museum....

 

While visiting the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, we got a guided tour of the AMARC facility on Davis-Monthan Air Base.  AMARC is the acronym for Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration. 

 

AMARC manages and regenerates (rebuilds and repairs) aircraft and are currently caring for over 4,000.  There are many airplanes on the field that are being stripped for parts which are then sent worldwide to repair planes. 

 

They are storing production tooling items for military aircraft that aren't being built any longer - just in case they may be needed again.  As part of the SALT agreement, there are B52's that are being sliced up and turned upside down.  Some planes not being used any longer by the military are sold to other countries.  They also convert some to waterbombers; some to air combat practice drones. 

 

The dry desert is a good place to store aircraft.  White protective film is placed over the glass to protect from the sun. 

 

As a bonus, we saw 63 planes on Celebrity Row representing one each of every kind of plane that is stored on the field plus historic models.

 

Beep! Beep!

Beep! Beep!  No, the roadrunner doesn't go "Beep! Beep!"  Nor do we see him racing around at high speed.

 

Many are traipsing through our campsite at Catalina State Park.  They are inquisitive and pretty tame. 

 

But what we like the best is their expressive comb and tail.  The comb raises and goes flat and makes us wonder what he's thinking. 

 

The tail sometimes goes almost straight up but usually hangs along the ground.  His tail feathers have the ends worn off because he drags them so often.  Then sometimes the tail cocks to the left or right.  What is he trying to tell us?

 

We found out one cool morning that they turn their backs toward the sun and raise their back feathers (and "mini" wings) to warm themselves. 

The Washingtonian Rain Dance

The rain dance worked.  The Phoenix area got wet and we got 2" of rain one day at Usery Park.  And it was cold.  38 degrees was the high for the day. 

 

What a great surprise to see Superstition Mountain in all it's snowy glory!  We passed at least 100 cars (honest!) pulled onto the shoulder of the road taking pictures.  It is such an unusual sight.

140 days without rain in Phoenix

140 days without rain in Phoenix and it's getting pretty dry and dusty here. Many folks are having lung problems with the crud floating in the air all the time. We are trying our best as proper Washingtonians to bring a relief to this drought but alas none here yet.

There is a big worry for all of Arizona that there will be some terrific wildfires this year and all government agencies are practicing firefighting techniques so they will be prepared when the fires break out as they surely will.


Here at Usery Park we were able to watch the county and city firefighters practicing hauling hose, spraying foam, and water bombing a pretend fire (an "X" on the ground). We climbed up a vista trail that allowed us to watch the happenings below. In Washington, the water bombing is usually done by airplane and the water is sucked up on a lake in the area. In Arizona with very few lakes, the water bombing is done by helicopter with water pouches lowered into portable "dunk" tanks to fill while the copter is hovering. These portable tanks are filled by water trucks. On the day we watched, 3 helicopters were practicing.

Don't know how to bring AZ more water but Seattle sure has had more than enough to share this year.

Speeders in Scottsdale

Big news around this area is that Scottsdale is now sending folks tickets for speeding on State Hwy 101 which wanders through the town.  The rub is that the tickets are based on sensors buried in the hiway, with cameras snapping pictures of the license plates.  They tested it for two weeks, and found an average of over 700 speeders (more than 8 mph over the limit) per day on weekdays and over 1000 per day on weekends!  During this trial they sent out 7,500 warning tickets!  We are not surprised at the numbers as we typically have to go 60 on the main thoroughfares thru residential areas to keep up with traffic.  During this test, two drivers were recorded over 120mph and many over 100mph.  Yee Hah!    According to the TV news, there is a big market for wavy glass plates that go over your license plate.  You can read the numbers with your eye, but the waves distort any picture taken by a camera.  

 

Just after the test period was over, we traveled 101 and were pleasantly surprised at traffic running 5 miles below the speed limit. 

 

The speeding fines are on a sliding scale.  Much of the fine money collected will be kept by the company providing the service but expect from the high numbers of offenders that Scottsdale will reap big bucks too.